The Recording
by Aida Caroti
Summary: On Sherlock's body they find a recording, a recording of everything between Moriarty and Sherlock on top of barts. 'Cold dread sank through his body, he didn't want to hear his friend die. Seeing the blood had been bad enough'


The Recording.

Lestrade sighed as he picked up the clear plastic bag of his desk, it was Sherlock's belongings- what he had had on him before he died.

That was what Lestrade didn't want to think about, Sherlock Holmes dead because the world discovered he was a fraud. It was something that Lestrade couldn't truly believe, not even with all the facts, the truth.

Sherlock had lied to him, lied to them all and it hurt. It stung more than Lestrade thought it should. After all Sherlock had done… Lestrade would miss him.

Lestrade glanced down at the bag and he stilled as a cold realisation went through him. Inside was a Dictaphone, Sherlock had recorded something, why?

Donovan came into the room but he ignored her. Numbly and hardly realising what he was doing Greg pulled it out and clicked play.

It was slightly fuzzy and he realised it must have been in his coat pocket. But he recognised the voices. Sherlock and Moriarty or was it Richard? It hardly mattered now.

"_I can kill Rich Brook and bring back Moriarty." _Sherlock sounded triumphant. Greg swallowed at the voice of his friend.

"_No, No, No, No, No, This is too easy, this is too easy." _Moriarty, he was disappointed, in Sherlock? "_There was no key!"_ The voice yelled.

Greg could almost imagine the way Sherlock's eyes would have widened at the mere possibility of being wrong, a concept so alien to the great Sherlock Holmes. He swallowed and ran a shaky hand through his hair.

Moriarty was talking still but he was staring in a trance, this Moriarty was evil. If he was evil, if he had broken into those places….

Then Sherlock hadn't.

"_That's your weakness, you always want things to be clever. We'll finish the game, one final act. Glad you chose a tall building."_

His hands were shaking even more violently and his eyes were watering, he didn't want to hear him die. It had been hard enough seeing all the blood; Sherlock's blood staining the pavement in a way that should never have been.

"It's a great place to do it."

"Do it, do what? Ah…" Sherlock's voice trailed off "My suicide" he didn't sound happy like he usually did when he had worked something out. Instead he sounded resigned, unhappy.

"Genius detective, proved to be a fraud. Read it in the papers… fairytales."

The lump wouldn't go, it was choking him. He heard Donovan come closer but didn't look up to see her expression. He didn't want to. He couldn't.

"_I could still prove that you created an entirely false identity."_ He was desperate, he bargaining. He didn't want to die, he didn't want to jump. It made it so much harder to accept.

"_You could kill yourself; it's a lot less effort." _

"_You're insane"_

"_You're only getting that now? Let me give you a little extra incentive. Your friends will die if you don't."_ The lump got bigger, and he suddenly began to realise something, Sherlock had jumped for John

"_John…"_

"_Not just John…everyone."_

"Mrs Hudson?" Sherlock's voice was breaking, pain coming across in waves.

"_Everyone"_

"_Lestrade?"_ Greg gulped; he had thought him a friend. Thought him above his brother and so many others. Tears leaked from the corners of his eyes. He heard Donovan gasp.

"_Three bullets, three gunmen, three victims. There's no way of stopping them now. Unless more people see you jump."_ The crackly voice said, but even in the recording there was no mistaking the maliciousness, the cold determination to kill.

"Sir" Donovan said quietly he looked up and into her shocked face. "Sir" she repeated almost begged. A gunshot rang through the recording.

A few seconds later there was a rustle and suddenly the sound was much clearer. Sherlock had removed it from his pocket.

"_Lestrade_" the voice came across haltingly. "_Lestrade, I had hoped it wouldn't come to this. But I have been expecting this for some time… expecting to die. I've been a bomb and now it's time, I will die. Like I knew I would, like Moriarty knew I would_."

Lestrade hadn't even known "_Molly knew, she knows more than she lets on. Always did. Lestrade, that's all it takes Lestrade. One seed of doubt, one word and your doubt in me wavered. It isn't your fault; with the evidence presented to you someone of your inferior intellect would doubt me._" Greg couldn't help the snort that escaped him. "_It is important that John believes, that John believes me a fraud. It is the only way. Only way._" His voice trailed off and Lestrade wanted to yell, he didn't want this message from his dead friend to be over.

"_Look after him for me, John will seek danger and he needs to stop. Stop him from trying to clear my name or anything of the sort. It will only hurt him. Lestrade, you can't tell anyone the truth. They must believe me to be a fraud as I have no doubt Moriarty has made plans for the eventuality of my name being cleared. I doubt the consequences would be positive." _

"_Stay safe Lestrade, thank you." _The voice clicked off for a second before clicking back on the voice sounding much more like the Sherlock he knew. "_Your wife is cheating on you with the PE and the Maths teacher, sometimes together. Leave her." _

The voice really did click off that time and he couldn't help but moan in despair. His friend was gone and he's been sodding innocent the entire time, and he'd doubted the great Sherlock Holmes.

"Sir, I was wrong, he. I…" Donovan stuttered, her hands where in front of her mouth and she was shaking her head.

"A seed of doubt." He muttered softly clenching his fists.

"I am, I am so, so sorry… I thought. I thought he had kidnapped those children, I wouldn't have said so otherwise…" She seemed to be trying to reassure herself more than she was him.

"Sorry doesn't bring him back, does it Sergeant?" He spat at her suddenly fuming. "I would never have doubted him… how silly we must have looked to them both. Following Moriarty's ever wish and manipulation. Without him ever having to step inside."

"Sir, I just thought it was an odd coincidence, I thought that the only explanation was that he had done it."

"No, you just never liked him being cleverer than you or embarrassing you so you took the first inclination that he could just maybe have done something and made it fact, because you liked the fact he hadn't really beaten you… he had just cheated."

"No sir, it's not like that-"

"Sherlock Holmes was a great man, he solved hundreds of cases and brought thousands of criminals to court. He deserved better than to die like that."

"Sir-" Donovan tried to speak again

"He died for me? Don't you see, he died for me. He allowed himself to care for three people, and those people were threatened and so he died for them. Out of the three I was the only one to doubt him." He shouted "Yet he still died for me!" Greg screamed throwing items of his desk. He sunk to the floor in his horror. Donovan didn't even try to speak. After a few minutes he pulled himself together enough to whisper out an order "Find the person who was supposed to kill me, he would have been close to me. Probably new in the department. Find him, I want these bastards caught."

Donovan scurried out of the room like a dog with its tail between its legs.

Greg sighed as he picked himself up, life wouldn't be the same without Sherlock.

But he could still try.

A/N Please review! Hope you enjoyed.


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